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CIA prisoner was used as torture prop to teach recruits – declassified documents

The US flag at the US Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba on August 7, 2013 © AFP / Chantal Valery
Samizdat | March 15, 2022

The US Central Intelligence Agency used a detainee in Afghanistan as a ‘prop’ to teach interrogators how to torture prisoners, leaving the man with brain damage, newly declassified documents have revealed.

According to the 2008 report by the CIA’s inspector general, published by The Guardian, 44-year-old Ammar al-Baluchi was used to teach interrogators how to perform a torture technique called ‘walling’. As explained by the CIA, walling is where an interrogator “pulls the detainee towards him and then quickly slams the detainee against [a] false wall.”

The document states that Baluchi was subjected to walling for up to two hours at a time, and a former trainee claimed that “all the interrogation students lined up to ‘wall’ Ammar” so their instructor “could certify them on their ability to use the technique.”

“In the case of ‘walling’ in particular the [Office of the Inspector General] had difficulty determining whether the session was designed to elicit information from Ammar or to ensure that all interrogator trainees received their certification,” the declassified report said, noting that it appeared “certification was key” during the torture sessions.

Baluchi – who was captured by the CIA in 2003 before being transferred to Guantanamo Bay in 2006 – reportedly suffered from brain damage as a result of his detainment by the US intelligence agency.

The Kuwaiti-born man was detained for allegedly having a role in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and serving as a courier for Osama Bin Laden.

Baluchi remains in US custody at Guantanamo Bay, despite calls from the United Nations and human rights activists for his release.

A Saudi Arabian man was released from Guantanamo Bay to receive mental health treatment this month after nearly 20 years in custody. Mohammad Mani Ahmad al-Qahtani, 46, was freed after US officials deemed his imprisonment “no longer necessary to protect against a continuing significant threat to the national security of the United States.”

Qahtani was reportedly diagnosed with schizophrenia and post-traumatic stress disorder after he was subjected to beatings, sexual humiliation, sleep deprivation, and other forms of torture at Guantanamo Bay.

There are 38 detainees left in the military prison.

March 15, 2022 Posted by | Subjugation - Torture, Timeless or most popular, War Crimes | , , , , | 4 Comments

Pfizer Pushes for 4th Shot, Says 3 Doses ‘Not That Good’ Against Infections

By Megan Redshaw | The Defender | March 14, 2022

Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla on Sunday told CBS “Face the Nation” a fourth dose of its COVID-19 vaccine will be necessary to maintain manageable levels of hospitalizations and mild infections.

The company plans to submit data on a fourth dose to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and is working on a vaccine that protects against all COVID variants for at least a year.

In an interview on “Squawk Box,” Bourla said:

“I think we’re going to submit to FDA a significant package of data about the need for a fourth dose, and they need to make their own conclusions, of course, and then CDC also. […] to see that clearly  there is a need in an environment of Omicron to boost the immune response.”

Bourla said a fourth dose is “necessary for right now” because protection after three doses of Pfizer’s vaccine is “not that good against infections” and “doesn’t last very long” when faced with a variant like Omicron.

Bourla said Pfizer is making a vaccine that covers Omicron and all other variants and is optimistic about the preliminary data he’s seen so far.

“There are so much trials that are going right now, and a lot of them we’ll start reading by the end of the month,” he added.

Bourla told CBS he foresees Americans needing to prepare themselves every fall for a COVID booster just like they do with the flu vaccine.

A third dose of Pfizer’s vaccine is currently available to anyone 12 and older who received a second dose at least five months prior to seeking the third dose.

Pfizer always planned for yearly boosters to boost profits

As The Defender reported Feb. 26, 2021, just two months after the FDA granted Emergency Use Authorization for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, Bourla was already telling media outlets the company’s plan long-term was to have yearly vaccine boosters.

“Every year, you need to go to get your flu vaccine,” Bourla said during an interview with NBC News. “It’s going to be the same with COVID. In a year, you will have to go and get your annual shot for COVID to be protected.”

That will mean even more sales — and more profits — from the vaccine, reported WRCBtv, a CBS subsidiary.

During a February 2021 earnings call, Bourla told analysts, big banks and investors the company could make significant profits by charging higher prices and implementing routine booster doses for new variants of the virus.

During the Barclays’ Global Health Conference in March 2021, CFO Frank D’Amelio said Pfizer didn’t see this as a one-time event, but “as something that’s going to continue for the foreseeable future.”

At the time, Pfizer had already launched a study of a third vaccine dose to address variants, called for annual boosters and told investors to expect a revenue stream similar to that of flu vaccines.

The FDA said at the time it was willing to authorize booster shots based on small clinical trials, accepting data on how well vaccines prime the immune system rather than holding out for long-term safety and efficacy results on protection against COVID.

Pfizer said last month it expects 2022 sales of its COVID vaccine and antiviral pill, Paxlovid, to yield $54 billion, Reuters reported.

Pfizer said its vaccine is projected to bring in $32 billion in 2022 — a 13% decline from 2021 levels.

New UK data suggest vaccines aren’t effective

According to data published on Substack by Alex Berenson, a former New York Times reporter, hospitalizations and deaths in the UK “remain stubbornly high and overwhelmingly occur in vaccinated people.”

Last month, 90% of the 1,000 Britons who died each week of COVID were vaccinated. During the four weeks ending Feb. 27, 397 unvaccinated people in Britain died of COVID compared to 3,512 who were vaccinated.

Berenson wrote:

“Using a broader definition, which may include more incidental deaths unrelated to COVID infections, the numbers are even worse, with 5,871 vaccinated people dying compared to 570 unvaccinated. (The United States does not publicly provide this data; it is not even clear American public health authorities collect it comprehensively.)

“The report also shows for the first time that adults under 50 are now just as likely to be hospitalized for COVID whether they are boosted or unvaccinated. The report does not provide a similar hospitalization estimate for people who were vaccinated but unboosted, but based on the raw numbers it does provide, those rates are the highest of all.

“Meanwhile, new Covid infections have nearly doubled in Britain in the last two weeks, and now top 60,000 a day.”

According to data, even boosters appear to “offer no protection against hospitalizations in younger people,” Berenson wrote.

Pfizer shot for kids under 5 could be authorized by May, company says

According to The New York Times, more than 22 million people in the U.S. under 18 are fully vaccinated with Pfizer’s vaccine, but the number of people getting vaccinated is tapering off. Yet, there is still a demand to vaccinate children under the age of 5.

Last month regulators pressed Pfizer and BioNTech to submit preliminary results from its three-dose pediatric trial. The FDA was poised to begin vaccinating the youngest age group with two doses even though it did not yet have final results on three doses.

While it’s still not clear why the effort collapsed, data from Pfizer showed overwhelmingly that two doses failed to adequately protect against symptomatic infection.

“The data that we saw made us realize that we needed to see data from a third dose, as in the ongoing trial, in order to make a determination that we could proceed with doing an authorization,” Dr. Peter Marks, director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, told reporters on a call.

Marks said he hoped the decision would “reassure” people the FDA was “making sure that anything that we authorize has the safety and efficacy that people have come to expect from our regulatory review of medical products.”

Asked about the situation on Sunday, Bourla said FDA officials were “very keen” for the company to send the data over but Pfizer executives were “a little bit reluctant to submit on two doses because we felt that the three-dose [regimen] is what kids will need.”

​​Bourla said data on how a three-dose regimen works for children as young as 6 months will probably be available in April, with authorization granted in May, “if it works.”

Pfizer asked FDA to waive reporting of some safety data

While Pfizer doesn’t know if its vaccine will prove effective enough for the youngest age group, the company says its research shows the vaccine is safe.

According to the most recent data from the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) — the primary government-funded system for reporting adverse vaccine reactions in the U.S. — a total of 1,168,894 adverse events following COVID vaccines were reported between Dec. 14, 2020, and March 4, 2022.

The data included a total of 25,158 reports of deaths — and 203,888 reports of serious injuries, including deaths, during the same time period.

Of the total adverse events reported, 667,973 are attributed to Pfizer’s vaccine. Of the 25,158 reported deaths following COVID vaccines, 16,475 are attributed to Pfizer’s vaccine.

Historically, VAERS has been shown to report only 1% of actual vaccine adverse events.

According to Pfizer data obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, the company applied for an FDA waiver to avoid recording certain safety data on the injections because the company claimed the VAERS system was adequate in revealing any safety issues with the injections.

In its waiver request, Pfizer stated VAERS is a “robust” system that is “designed to detect safety concerns with vaccines.”

Pfizer documents also revealed the company paid $2.87 million when it submitted its COVID vaccine application to the FDA, which has been reluctant to release the documents forming the basis of approval for Pfizer’s vaccine.

Megan Redshaw is a freelance reporter for The Defender. She has a background in political science, a law degree and extensive training in natural health.

© 2022 Children’s Health Defense, Inc. This work is reproduced and distributed with the permission of Children’s Health Defense, Inc. Want to learn more from Children’s Health Defense? Sign up for free news and updates from Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and the Children’s Health Defense. Your donation will help to support us in our efforts.

March 15, 2022 Posted by | Deception, Science and Pseudo-Science | , | 4 Comments

Humanitarian flights for Ukraine loaded with weapons, protesting airport workers claim

Samizdat | March 15, 2022

One of Italy’s largest trade unions has called for a protest outside the Pisa airport on Saturday, after receiving a tip from some employees that Ukraine relief flights were transporting weapons and ammunition, not food and medicine.

Several workers at the Galileo Galilei airport refused to load one of the cargo flights advertised as carrying humanitarian aid to Ukraine. The crates did not contain food and medication but weapons, ammunition and explosives instead, the Unione Sindacale di Base (USB) said in a statement on Monday evening.

“We strongly denounce this outright falsification, which cynically uses ‘humanitarian’ aid as cover to fuel the war in Ukraine,” the USB said.

The union said the workers refused to load the military supplies as that would lead to the deaths of their colleagues in Ukraine – namely, those working at the bases targeted by Russian missile strikes, where the weapons processed through US and NATO bases in Poland get delivered.

Francesca Donato, an Italian member of the European Parliament, commented on the union’s statement by calling on the government in Rome to “clarify” what is happening.

Meanwhile, dockworkers at the nearby port of Livorno joined the protest on Tuesday, praising their airport colleagues for standing up for their values.

“We stand alongside the Ukrainian peoples, the Donbass and Russia and we do not want to be complicit in this conflict,” the Porto Livorno chapter of USB said in a statement.

USB is calling for air traffic control of the Pisa airport to “immediately block these flights of death disguised as humanitarian aid.” A protest under the slogan “bridges of peace, not flights of war” is scheduled outside the airport for Saturday, March 19.

The union also called on all workers to refuse to load weapons and explosives, and for an immediate ceasefire and peace talks to end the conflict in Ukraine.

March 15, 2022 Posted by | Militarism, Solidarity and Activism | , | 2 Comments

Medical Establishment Excess Death Analysis Omits Vaccine Deaths

At least 10 million people worldwide have died from pandemic, but not COVID infection

By Joel S Hirschhorn | March 14, 2022

The subject of excess deaths during the pandemic, meaning deaths more than prior years, has received much attention. Now comes an analysis by medical establishment researchers, funded by Bill Gates and published in the premier establishment medical journal – The Lancet. An establishment publication commented positively on the article.

Before explaining what was intentionally omitted, here are the key findings.

The study covered the initial two years of the COVID pandemic, 2020 and 2021. It estimated excess mortality from the COVID-19 pandemic in 191 countries and territories, and 252 subnational units for selected countries.  Global deaths directly attributed to COVID-19 reached 5.9 million, yet estimates put excess deaths during this period at a staggering 18.2 million. In other words, about 12 million people probably died from causes other than COVID infection. Something that the public health establishment should be held accountable for.

At the country level, the highest numbers of cumulative excess deaths due to the pandemic were estimated in India 4·07 million, the USA 1·13 million, Russia 1·07 million, Mexico 798 000, Brazil 792 000, Indonesia 736 000, and Pakistan 664 000. Note that the figure for the USA was about 300,000 greater than the CDC official number of deaths related to COVID infection through 2021.

Among countries, the excess mortality rate was highest in Russia 374·6 deaths per 100 000 and Mexico 325·1 per 100 000, and was similar in Brazil 186·9 per 100 000 and the USA 179·3 per 100 000. The highest estimated excess mortality rate from COVID infection was in Bolivia at 734.9 deaths per 100,000, followed by Bulgaria, Eswatini, North Macedonia, and Lesotho.  Iceland had the lowest excess mortality rate 47.8 per 100,000. Australia, Singapore, New Zealand, and Taiwan had negative excess mortality rates, meaning fewer people died than in pre-pandemic years.

The study noted: “Our estimates of COVID-19 excess mortality suggest the mortality impact from the COVID-19 pandemic has been more devastating than the situation documented by official statistics. Official statistics on reported COVID-19 deaths provide only a partial picture of the true burden of mortality.” In other words, something other than the virus is to blame for millions of deaths.

An interesting finding was that studies from several countries including Sweden, Belgium and the Netherlands, suggest COVID-19 infection was the direct cause of most excess deaths, most likely because these nations maintained a more open society than other countries.

The study did recognize that there was likely underreporting in some places of direct deaths due to COVID infection.

The key goal in excess death studies is explaining deaths not resulting from COVID infection, and this usually means collateral or indirect deaths from how the pandemic was managed or, more correctly, mismanaged. So many people died from the many impacts of economic lockdowns, inability to get regular medical care, suicides and illegal drug use, for example.

Most interesting in this very detailed study was absolutely no consideration of deaths associated with COVID vaccines. Data from the US, UK and European Union indicate at least several hundred thousand deaths. Many more in other global locations could easily bring the total to several million, especially recognizing that millions of adverse health impacts from vaccines likely will keep explaining deaths for quite some time.

But the study had a very positive view of the benefits of COVID vaccines: “the development and deployment of SARS-COV-2 vaccines have considerably lowered mortality rates among people who contract the virus and among the general population. As a result, we expect trends in excess mortality due to COVID-19 to change over time as the coverage of vaccination increases among populations and as new variants emerge.” This, obviously, is an establishment view of the COVID vaccines despite a large medical literature with an opposite view.

Also interesting was the detailed analysis for states in India that totally ignored what is now widely known. Namely, that a number of states, especially Uttar Pradesh, used ivermectin to successfully wipe out the pandemic.

Death numbers in a number of other nations were also surely reduced by wide use of ivermectin. But this study had no interest in examining this.

US excess deaths

There are reasons to think that the excess death data for the US was an undercount. Various insurance industry officials have spoken about very high death rates not due to COVID infection in working age people.  CDC data shows the Millennial generation suffered a “Vietnam War event,” with more than 61,000 excess deaths in that age group in the second half of 2021, according to an analysis by Edward Dowd a former Wall Street executive who made a career of crunching numbers to make big-dollar investment decisions. The Millennials, about ages 25 to 40, experienced an 84% increase in excess mortality in the fall, he said, describing it as the “worst-ever excess mortality, I think, in history.”

Along this same line is this: According to the CEO of OneAmerica, a national life insurance corporation headquartered in Indiana, deaths are up 40% in the third quarter of 2021. These deaths are primarily non-COVID deaths among workers aged 18 through 64. “We are seeing, right now, the highest death rates we have seen in the history of this business – not just at OneAmerica,” the company’s CEO Scott Davison said. The data is consistent across every player in that business. What the data is showing to us is that the deaths that are being reported as COVID deaths greatly understate the actual death losses among working-age people from the pandemic. It may not all be COVID on their death certificate, but deaths are up just huge, huge numbers.”

Conclusions

The massive number of all pandemic deaths shows how totally ineffective all actions by governments and public health groups, as well as the medical establishment, have been. It has all been one gigantic pandemic blunder.

Even if there was some undercounting of COVID infection deaths, there probably was at least 10 million pandemic deaths in the two years covered in this study that can and should be blamed on a number of ineffective and unnecessary public health actions. Where is the accountability for these non-infection deaths?

Considering the enormous number of COVID vaccine shots given globally there also should be no praise for them saving lives. In some countries like the US with high rates of vaccination there were still high COVID deaths. What must always be emphasized is that the use of ivermectin and various non-vaccine protocols could have prevented nearly all COVID infection deaths.

March 15, 2022 Posted by | Economics, Science and Pseudo-Science, Timeless or most popular, War Crimes | , , | 1 Comment

Covid vaccine damage figures head for half a million

By Kathy Gyngell | TCW Defending Freedom | March 15, 2022

UNTIL now in our regular MHRA adverse effects reports we’ve focused quite heavily on myocarditis and acute cardiac disorders, not least for the dramatically increased risk of the vaccine for younger age groups, young men in particular. In terms of numbers recorded, however, these are eclipsed by what the MHRA classifies as nervous system disorders and about which we hear little.

Adverse events for this ‘category’ now stand at an astonishing 282,041, which is possibly less than 10 per cent of the real figure, 182,251 of them associated with the AstraZeneca vaccine. Nor does the overall figure include the further 12,769 ‘tremor’ events. Eugyppius, written about elsewhere in these pages today, has been recording his readers’ reports of their adverse vaccine reactions. He recently reported the response, commenting on the ‘many letters describing shingles and Bell’s Palsy following vaccination; and of more puzzling and potentially more serious neurological problems, from vertigo to muscular tremors to seizures’.

We hope to be able to report on a breakdown of the nervous disorder data in weeks to come.

We are in the dark as to how many unrecognised cases of paralysis and disability there are. Would, for example, Tony Shingler’s severe vaccine reaction and final diagnosis of Guillain-Barré syndrome ever been known about but for the tenacity of his wife Nicola?

It’s high time the NHS, the MHRA and individual doctors came clean about what they have seen. We need to know about ALL the ‘coincidences’.

Here is the latest Yellow Card summary, a little late from us this week. Once again, overall deaths are up and overall reactions are heading for the half million mark. If this is only 10 per of the real numbers (as the MHRA itself suggests) I leave you to do the maths.

MHRA Yellow Card reporting summary up to February 23, 2022 (published March 3)

Adult – Primary & Booster/Third Dose, Child Administration

Primary doses

* Pfizer – 26million people – Yellow Card reporting rate – 1 in 156 people impacted

* AstraZeneca – 24.9m people – reporting rate – 1 in 102 people impacted

* Moderna – 1.6m people – reporting rate – 1 in 44 people impacted

Overall 1 in 117 people injected experiences a Yellow Card Adverse Event.

Total doses including boosters administered – 78.4m (Pfizer) + 49.15m (AZ) + 12m (Moderna) = 139,648,374 million doses

Adult Booster or 3rd Doses given = 38,112,342 people

Booster Yellow Card Reports – 29,609 (Pfizer) + 487 (AZ) + 16,195 (Moderna) + 163 (Unknown) = 46,454

Reactions – 477,632 (Pfizer) + 863,696 (AZ) + 120,124 (Moderna) + 4,739 (Unknown) = 1,466,191

Reports – 166,225 (Pfizer) + 243,903 (AZ) + 36,113 (Moderna) + 1,554 (Unknown) = 447,795 people impacted

Fatal – 726 (Pfizer) + 1,235 (AZ) + 40 (Moderna) + 39 (Unknown) = 2040

Blood Disorders – 16,850 (Pfizer) + 7,806 (AZ) + 2,449 (Moderna) + 62 (Unknown) = 27,167

Pulmonary Embolism & Deep Vein Thrombosis – 881 (Pfizer) + 3,042 (AZ) + 112 (Moderna) + 26 (Unknown) = 4,061

Anaphylaxis – 653 (Pfizer) + 873 (AZ) + 87 (Moderna) + 2 (Unknown) = 1,615

Acute Cardiac – 12,575 (Pfizer) + 11,239 (AZ) + 3,096 (Moderna) + 95 (Unknown) = 27,005

Eye Disorders – 7,864 (Pfizer) + 14,817 (AZ) + 1,481 (Moderna) + 84 (Unknown) = 24,246

Blindness – 156 (Pfizer) + 318 (AZ) + 32 (Moderna) + 4 (Unknown) = 510

Deafness – 292 (Pfizer) + 425 (AZ) + 50 (Moderna) + 5 (Unknown) = 772

Spontaneous Abortions – 478 + 1 premature baby death / 14 stillbirth/foetal deaths (13 recorded as fatal) (Pfizer) + 230 + 5 stillbirth (AZ) + 62 + 1 stillbirth (Moderna) + 6 (Unknown) = 776 miscarriages

Nervous System Disorders – 79,478 (Pfizer) + 182,251 (AZ) + 19,467 (Moderna) + 845 (Unknown) = 282,041

Vomiting – 5,172 (Pfizer) + 11,633 (AZ) + 1,740 (Moderna) + 59 (Unknown) = 18,604

Strokes and CNS haemorrhages – 768 (Pfizer) + 2,319 (AZ) + 52 (Moderna) + 16 (Unknown) = 3,155

Seizures – 1,073 (Pfizer) + 2,058 (AZ) + 255 (Moderna) + 17 (Unknown) = 3,403

Paralysis – 499 (Pfizer) + 875 (AZ) + 100 (Moderna) + 9 (Unknown) = 1,483

Gastrointestinal Disorders – 41,753 (Pfizer) + 80,845 (AZ) + 10,485 (Moderna) + 385 (Unknown) = 133,468

Infections – 11,791 (Pfizer) + 20,177 (AZ) + 2,211 (Moderna) + 153 (Unknown) = 34,332

Herpes – 2,180 (Pfizer) + 2,682 (AZ) + 243 (Moderna) + 23 (Unknown) = 5128

Immune System Disorders – 2,398 (Pfizer) + 3,284 (AZ) + 596 (Moderna) + 21 (Unknown) = 6,299

BCG Scar Reactivation – 67 (Pfizer) + 38 (AZ) + 51 (Moderna) = 156

Skin Disorders – 33,395 (Pfizer) + 53,230 (AZ) + 12,771 (Moderna) + 335 (Unknown) = 99,731

Respiratory Disorders – 21,232 (Pfizer) + 29,661 (AZ) + 4,115 (Moderna) + 202 (Unknown) = 55,210

Psychiatric Disorders – 9,983 (Pfizer) + 18,330 (AZ) + 2,378 (Moderna) + 109 (Unknown) = 30,800

Reproductive/Breast Disorders – 30,704 (Pfizer) + 20,719 (AZ) + 5,037 (Moderna) + 213 (Unknown) = 56,673

Epistaxis (nosebleeds) – 1,068 (Pfizer) + 2,302 (AZ) + 190 (Moderna) + 11 (Unknown) = 3,571

Tremor – 2,134 (Pfizer) + 9,934 (AZ) + 651 (Moderna) + 50 (Unknown) = 12,769

Children and young people special report

Suspected side effects reported in individuals under 18 years old

* Pfizer – 3,200,000 children (1st doses) plus 1,700,000 second doses resulting in 3,186 Yellow Cards (up 75 since last week)

* AZ – 12,400 children (1st doses) plus 9,200 second doses resulting in 256 Yellow Cards – Reporting rate 1 in 48

* Moderna – 2,100 children (1st doses) and 1,400 second doses resulting in 24 Yellow cards

* Brand Unspecified – 21 Yellow Cards

Total = 3,214,500 children injected

Total Yellow Cards under-18s = 3,487

For full reports including 348 pages of specific reaction listings see here. 

March 15, 2022 Posted by | Deception, Science and Pseudo-Science | , | Leave a comment

YouTube flags Tulsi Gabbard’s criticism of “military industrial complex” as “inappropriate,” “offensive”

By Christina Maas | Reclaim The Net | March 15, 2022

An interview for Fox News’ “Ingraham Angle,” featuring former Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, was censored for being potentially “offensive” and “inappropriate” to some audiences.

In the interview, Ingraham asked Gabbard, “Congresswoman, why are we talking about no-fly zones instead of the fact that for the first time we have President Zelensky stepping back from his earlier NATO wishes and even demands?”

Gabbard expressed her frustration with the fact that allegedly no one was discussing a statement Ukraine’s President Zelensky made, about being “… open to the fact of saying, ‘Hey, yeah, maybe we’ll set this NATO membership thing aside,’ and he’s willing to talk with Putin directly to negotiate.”

Gabbard suggested that the West was interfering with attempts to settle the conflict because, “it’s good for the military industrial complex” and it allowed Western leaders to “have this proxy war with Russia, something that Hillary Clinton laid out just recently.”

Gabbard strongly condemned the war, saying: “This war machine, this power elite in Washington, want to turn Ukraine into another Afghanistan, turn into killing fields where this long-term insurgency is supported. And they bleed out and cripple, kill as many Russians as possible for who knows how long, and they’re really showing their real aim in the fact that they’re not taking action right now to end this conflict.”

YouTube flagged the video, putting up a filter that said, “the following content has been identified by the YouTube community as inappropriate or offensive to some audiences.”

March 15, 2022 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Full Spectrum Dominance | , , , | 5 Comments

China names world’s ‘hacking empire’

RT | March 15, 2022

Calling the US a “hacking empire” of the world, the Chinese Foreign Ministry urged Washington to stop “malicious” cyber activities following reports that American hackers subverted a network in China to launch attacks on Russia and Belarus.

“China is gravely concerned about cyberattacks against other countries that originate from the US and use China as a springboard,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian told reporters at a press briefing on Monday.

Zhao was commenting on recent Chinese media reports that hackers, mainly from the US but also from NATO allies Germany and the Netherlands, recently hijacked a Chinese computer network for cyberattacks, 87% of which targeted Russia.

“Against the background of the Ukraine situation, such a move may produce the negative effect of misleading the international community and spreading disinformation,” Zhao said, pointing out that “a former US senior official called publicly for launching cyberattacks on Russia not long ago.”

This appeared to be a reference to Hillary Clinton, former US secretary of state and presidential candidate, who made the calls in an MSNBC interview at the end of February.

While Beijing doesn’t know the exact role of the US government in the attack, or if it is linked to the “long practice of smearing China in cyberspace” by the US, Zhao called for Washington to “adopt a more responsible attitude.”

Meanwhile, the White House said on Monday that the US has threatened China with “significant consequences” if it helps Russia in any way, during lengthy talks in Rome between National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and Chinese envoy Yang Jiechi.

Multiple Western outlets claimed over the weekend that Moscow had asked Beijing for military aid for the conflict in Ukraine. Zhao called the claims “disinformation” coming from the US.

March 15, 2022 Posted by | Deception | , , , , | 2 Comments

Firefox removes Yandex search, will auto-switch affected users to Google

By Rick Findlay | Reclaim The Net | March 15, 2022

Mozilla has pushed a new release of its Firefox browser with one notable change; it will no longer have Yandex, the Russian search engine, and Mail.ru as options.

“Yandex and Mail.ru have been removed as optional search providers in the drop-down search menu in Firefox,” Mozilla said.

“If you previously installed a customized version of Firefox with Yandex or Mail.ru, offered through partner distribution channels, this release removes those customizations, including add-ons and default bookmarks. Where applicable, your browser will revert to default settings, as offered by Mozilla.

“All other releases of Firefox remain unaffected by the change.”

Users affected by the changes will have their search engine automatically switched to the Google default – by which Google allegedly pays Mozilla hundreds of millions of dollars for the privilege.

“After careful consideration, we are suspending the use of Yandex Search in Firefox due to credible reports of search results displaying a prevalence of state-sponsored content, which is contrary to the principles of Mozilla,” a Mozilla spokesperson said.

“This means for the time being Yandex Search will not be the default search experience (or a default search option) for users in Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Turkey. In the meantime, we are pointing people to Google.com.”

March 15, 2022 Posted by | Full Spectrum Dominance, Russophobia | , | 2 Comments

Russian forces double down to complete operation

BY M. K. BHADRAKUMAR | INDIAN PUNCHLINE | MARCH 15, 2022 

After substantially degrading Ukraine’s military capabilities, Russia is poised to escalate the special operation leading to the victory lap. Moscow has given signals in this direction. 

The most significant signal came from the Kremlin spokesmen Dmitry Medvedev, who said on Monday, “Russia has a sufficient potential for conducting the special military operation in Ukraine. The operation is proceeding in accordance with the original plan and will be completed on time and in full.” 

As I had written more than once previously, Russian military strategy is on course, contrary to what the hyped up western disinformation has conveyed, namely, that the special operation has “failed”. Peskov hinted that there is no question of stopping the operation prematurely. He spoke amidst western calls for “ceasefire.” 

Peskov disclosed that President Vladimir Putin had specifically ordered the armed forces to refrain from an immediate assault on the cities, including Kiev, so as to prevent heavy civilian casualty. The operation, therefore, took into account the ground reality that the extremist Neo-Nazi groups had deployed weapons in densely-populated residential areas. 

This meant that the tactic narrowed down to “working with modern high-precision weapons, hitting only military and information infrastructure facilities.” Clearly, this also explained the slow pace and low intensity of the operations interspersed with lulls in the fighting and the tactic of encircling large settlements instead of attacking them frontally. 

However, Peskov said, now that the large settlements have been surrounded, the military forces “do not exclude” taking Ukrainian cities under their “full control.” By the way, Defense Ministry Spokesman Igor Konashenkov said on Sunday, “Overall, 3,736 facilities of Ukrainian military infrastructure have been disabled, 100 aircraft and 139 UAVs were destroyed, as well as 1,234 tanks and other armoured vehicles, 122 multiple-launch rocket systems, 452 weapons of field artillery and mortars, and 1,013 units of special military hardware. 

Peskov of course denied the western propaganda reports, also denied by Beijing, that Moscow requested Chinese military assistance. Considering that the US-led coalition of 177,194 troops backed by massive airpower took over forty days to take Iraq in 2003, Russians have drawn up a brilliant strategy.

Even Russia’s worst detractors in the West would admit that the Russian force level in Ukraine is much less and also that Saddam Hussein’s army was systematically degraded by the US through a period of one decade before the invasion took place in 2003.  

From the Ukrainian perspective, the really hard part is just about to begin. The southern port city of Mariupol cannot hold out any longer. Practically all fire emplacements the neo-Nazis had created in Mariupol’s suburbs have been destroyed. Russian special forces have eliminated the neo-Nazis’ main forces entrenched in the residential areas of the city’s perimeters. 

The fall of Mariupol will be a turning point. It will release the Russian forces to drive on to Zaporizhya City and Dnipro, the lynchpin on the Dnieper river that controls the southern approaches to Kiev. Equally, Russian attacks from Kherson toward Mykolayiv may resume in the south with a view to surround Odessa, the jewel in the crown on the Black Sea coast.  

Meanwhile, the western mercenaries got a taste of what is to come during the pre-dawn cruise missile attack Sunday at a Ukrainian military base less than 20 kms from the Polish border. (Russian account said 180 foreign mercenaries were killed. 

The Russian MOD spokesman Maj-Gen. Konashenkov said later, “We know all locations of foreign mercenaries in Ukraine. More surgical strikes will continue to be delivered against them.” The western countries, especially the US, which embarked on this misadventure to despatch mercenaries, may have second thoughts. 

Suffice to say, all this adds up as a growing realisation in the Western capitals, including Washington, that the Russian operation can no longer be thwarted and is destined to run its course. This is evident from the latest remarks by French President Emmanuel Macron on French TV on Monday:

“Europe cannot be safe if it doesn’t engage in a dialogue with Russia. This is our history, our geography. Therefore I intend to talk with President Putin in the upcoming hours… It is necessary to prepare conditions for peace now already, because the war will end when everybody sits down at the table and time will come to determine who is ready to promise what. Therefore, in order to be ready, we must get ready now already.”

Succinctly put, Macron is looking ahead at the scenario after the Russian operations conclude “when everybody sits down at the table… to determine who is ready to promise what.” Significantly, Macron was speaking a few hours after a phone call from the US president Joe Biden.

Even more significantly, Bloomberg has reported that the US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan has sought a call with his Russian counterpart Nikolai Patrushev, one of Putin’s closest political associates in the Kremlin. This is the first such high-level contact by Washington since the Russian operation began on February 24.  

March 15, 2022 Posted by | Aletho News | , , , | Leave a comment

China, US keep dialogue, but ‘no respect, no cooperation’

By Yang Sheng, Wan Lin and Wang Wenwen – Global Times – March 14, 2022

China’s top diplomat Yang Jiechi met US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan in the Italian capital of Rome Monday to exchange views on China-US relations and other international and regional issues of common concern.

Chinese analysts said the US wants to use the Rome meeting to further pressure China to serve its sanctions against Russia, but China won’t be misguided, and they slammed Washington for its arrogance in bossing other countries to unconditionally follow its strategy while showing no respect to the core interests of others.

However, the differences won’t allow the world’s No.1 and No.2 economies to cut off channels of communication, since there are many issues on which the two sides share common concerns. Experts said the scheduled Yang-Sullivan meeting, nearly four months after the virtual summit was held between the top leaders of the two countries, demonstrated that the China-US high-ranking communication mechanism is stably running and is a positive sign to the world at such a turbulent time.

The key issue of this meeting is to implement the important consensus reached by the Chinese and US heads of state in their virtual summit in November last year, Zhao Lijian, spokesperson of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, announced on Sunday.

China and the US arranged the meeting between Yang, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the CPC Central Committee, and Sullivan at the end of last year. Both sides have been in communication on the meeting and set the date and time, said Zhao.

The White House said in a statement on Sunday that the two sides will discuss ongoing efforts to manage the competition between the two countries and discuss the impact of the Russia-Ukraine conflict on regional and global security.

Monday’s meeting was not one that was urgently set up in response to an emergency, it had been planned long ago by the two sides according to their own schedules, Diao Daming, associate professor at the Renmin University of China in Beijing, told the Global Times on Sunday.

According to the statement from the White House, Sullivan will also meet with Luigi Mattiolo, diplomatic advisor to the Italian Prime Minister.

Diao said one important part of the discussion will address whether the consensus reached by the leaders of China and the US in their November 2021 meeting has been fulfilled and how the next step will be implemented.

“The stably sustained high-ranking communication between China and the US, the two major powers whose relations have long affected the overall development of the world, will send positive signals to the world at this time,” said Diao.

Chinese experts said the most important consensus reached by the two leaders in November 2021 is to reconfirm the US stance on supporting the one-China principle and opposing Taiwan secessionism, as this is the foundation of bilateral ties. But what the US has done indicates it will continue to be duplicitous, so based on this fact, it’s unlikely that there will be a major breakthrough to bring ties back on normal track despite the two sides maintaining dialogue.

Yang and Sullivan met in Zurich in October 2021, during which both parties had a “comprehensive and in-depth” exchange of views on China-US relations as well as international and regional issues of common concern.

Lü Xiang, a research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that the issue of common concern for both China and the US now is the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. He highlighted that the key to this issue is the strategic confrontation between Russia and the US, or NATO.

With a potentially tense conflict between Russia and the US, it is critical for the US to understand China’s position, and China also wants to know how the US will play the game under the current situation, Lü noted.

The US might expect China to be a mediator with Russia, but the US should not try to create discord between China and Russia even if it is not capable of doing so, the expert said.

The US should calm down and take a more reasonable view of bilateral relations and the global order, and it should reconsider its approaches toward both China and Russia and learn that pressure, sanctions and provocations won’t solve any problems, but only make the US suffer more, Chinese experts said.

Apart from the Russia-Ukraine conflict, other hot topics concerning regional or international relations, such as climate change, the Korean Peninsula issue and the Iran nuclear deal, could also be discussed in Monday’s meeting, according to Diao.

No respect, no cooperation

According to CNN, Sullivan said on Sunday that Russia is concerned about China’s support after the West launched sanctions against Moscow.

“We also are watching closely to see the extent to which China actually does provide any form of support, material support or economic support, to Russia. It is a concern of ours. And we have communicated to Beijing that we will not stand by and allow any country to compensate Russia for its losses from the economic sanctions,” Sullivan said.

Li Haidong, a professor at the Institute of International Relations of China Foreign Affairs University, told the Global Times, “Obviously, the US is expecting China to do unconditionally what it says or it will punish China as well. This is totally opposite to the principles of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation.”

The three principles were laid out by the Chinese side at the virtual summit between the two heads of state last year.

If the US keeps dealing with China in this way, the dialogue will be pointless and meaningless, and there is no chance that Washington will get what it wants from China, said Li, noting that this would be a tragedy of US diplomacy, and “we hope the US won’t mess up its ties with China like it did with Russia. It has made a huge mistake in dealing with Russia, and it’s making mistakes in dealing with China.”

Both China and Russia are aware of the US attempt to split them, but both sides have confidence and calmness to make the strategic partnership withstand the instigation from Washington, said analysts.

Timofei Bordachev, program director of the Moscow-based Valdai Club, told the Global Times on Monday, “A high level of trust exists between Chinese and Russian leadership. What is most important is not the efforts of the US, but how the present relationship between China and Russia fits the development goals of both nations, which do not require competition between them.”

The US is trying to force the international community to stand with it, and will not give any room for any other countries to remain neutral or stay away from joining Western sanctions and condemn Russia, just as China, India, Turkey, Israel and South Africa are doing, observers said.

These countries have their own reasons for refusing to follow Western sanctions, as they make diplomatic decisions independently based on their own interests, their understanding of the issue and fairness in international relations, rather than just simply following the US or Russia, said experts.

Observers also noted that these countries are the ones that can really contribute to mediating the conflict, as only those that are truly neutral will be accepted by the warring parties to be mediators, while the US can only worsen the situation through sanctions and supplying weapons.

March 15, 2022 Posted by | Economics, Solidarity and Activism | , | Leave a comment

China accuses US of disinformation

RT | March 15, 2022

In response to Western media reports that Moscow requested military aid from Beijing to conduct its operation in Ukraine, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China has accused US officials of spreading disinformation with sinister intent.

“The United States has been spreading false information against China on the Ukraine issue recently, with sinister intentions,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said on Monday, answering a foreign reporter’s question on whether China will assist Russia with arms.

“China’s position on the Ukraine issue is consistent and clear, and we have always played a constructive role in persuading peace and promoting talks,” he added. Zhao also called on the belligerent parties to exercise restraint and de-escalate tensions rather than fueling them, while insisting that all countries should push for a diplomatic solution.

On Sunday, the Financial Times reported that Moscow asked China “for equipment and other kinds of unspecified military assistance” to support its military operation in Ukraine. The report added that the White House was concerned “Beijing may undermine western efforts to help Ukrainian forces defend their country” if it chooses to grant the alleged request.

Earlier, Washington threatened to shut down Chinese chip manufacturers if Beijing assists Moscow in overriding US sanctions.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that Russia has sufficient military resources to conduct the operation in Ukraine without requesting aid from other countries.

“Newspapers write a lot these days. You shouldn’t take it as a primary source. Russia has an independent potential to continue the operation, as we said, it is developing according to plan and will be completed on time and in full,” he stated.

The US and its EU allies have imposed unprecedented sanctions on Moscow in response to the military operation in Ukraine. Russia announced its decision in late February, following a seven-year standoff over Kiev’s failure to implement the terms of the Minsk agreements, and Moscow’s eventual recognition of the Donbass republics in Donetsk and Lugansk. The German- and French-brokered protocols were designed to regularize the status of the two regions within the Ukrainian state.

Moscow has now demanded that Ukraine officially declare itself a neutral country that will never join NATO. Kiev insists the Russian offensive was completely unprovoked and has denied claims it was planning to retake the two republics by force.

March 15, 2022 Posted by | Deception, Fake News, Mainstream Media, Warmongering | , , , | 2 Comments

Moscow reveals whether US sanctions would harm Iran deal

RT | March 15, 2022

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Tuesday that Moscow has received written assurances from the US that Ukraine-related sanctions won’t hinder its ability to trade with Iran under the terms of a new nuclear agreement. “We received written guarantees. They are included in the text of the agreement itself on the resumption of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action on the Iranian nuclear program,” Lavrov told reporters in Moscow.

The ‘Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action’, or JCPOA, is the official title of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. Signed by Iran and the US, UK, Russia, France, Germany, China and the EU the deal promised Iran sanctions relief in exchange for a halt to its nuclear program. Former US President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from the deal in 2018, claiming that Iran was breaching its obligations, and negotiators have been meeting in Vienna, Austria and attempting to hammer out a new deal for nearly a year now.

An unnamed US official told the Wall Street Journal on Sunday that the US was not prepared to ease any Ukraine-related sanctions to save the deal, and would be open to negotiating a “replica of the JCPOA” without Russian involvement if Moscow insisted on exemptions being made.

Commenting on the reports, Lavrov suggested that Washington itself is still not ready to support the deal, and pointed out that, according to his Iranian counterpart, the problem with the agreement is in the US’ “exorbitant demands.”

Appearing beside Lavrov on Tuesday, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said that there is no link between the conflict in Ukraine and the talks in Vienna.

The Iranians have repeatedly insisted that Russia remain a part of any deal.

The Vienna negotiations have been paused since last week, but an Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Monday that they should resume shortly, when they will enter their “final, crucial steps.” Lavrov told reporters on Tuesday that he believes these talks are on the home stretch, and called on the US to “return to the legal framework of this nuclear deal” and lift “the illegal sanctions the US has imposed to hurt not only Iran and its people, but a number of other countries.”

March 15, 2022 Posted by | Economics, Wars for Israel | , , , | Leave a comment

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